Abstract
Nuclear reactors will face the problem of decommissioning at the end of their operating life due to the high radioactivity of reactor components and environmental safety considerations. The Heavy Water Research Reactor (HWRR) is the first large-scale research reactor to be decommissioned in China. The second phase of HWRR decommissioning involves the main components in the reactor block, so the radiation source terms and the radioactive waste level need to be evaluated before demolition and disposal. Based on the operating history, three-dimensional geometry, materials, and other information of the HWRR, the activity of radionuclides in the main components of HWRR is calculated and analyzed, and the MCNP/ORIGEN coupling scheme is utilized for theoretical analysis. The theoretical results indicate that 14C, 54Mn, 55Fe, 60Co, 63Ni, and 152Eu are the main radioactive nuclides. The total activity of radioactive nuclides was 2.36E + 15 Bq at the end of 2007, 4.27E + 13 Bq at the end of 2021, and 1.83E + 13 Bq at the end of 2025. Furthermore, local sampling and radiometric analyses based on the HPGe gamma-ray spectrometer are also performed to verify the theoretical results, the ratio of theoretical activity values to the measured activity of the experimental sample is within 2.5 times, so the theoretical results are conservative. According to the classification standards for radioactive waste, the inner shell, outer shell, cooling water tank, sand layer, and heavy concrete shielding layer are all low-level waste. These results and conclusions can serve as a reference for the second phase decommissioning of the HWRR and the subsequent disposal of radioactive waste.
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This work was supported by the China Institute of Atomic Energy.
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Yaping Guo: writing—original draft, software modeling and computation.
Peng Nie: review and editing.
Ruizhi Li: review and editing.
Lijun Zhang: results analysis, review.
Zelong Zhao: supervision, review and editing.
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Guo, Y., Nie, P., Li, R. et al. Radiation source terms analysis and classification of radioactive waste for the decommissioning of the first HWRR reactor in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33682-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33682-3